Cold Water
by hiddenheadspace
Summary: One day, Sam meets a boy by the ocean while walking his dog. (Sabriel, AU.)


A/N: Okay apparently I'm on a roll. Have more supernatural fic. I promise I'll come back to Harry Potter! (Probably.) Be warned. Mermaids are in this fic. Merpeople galore. Again with the teenagers, also. Sam+Dean aren't hunters here, but hunters exist.

* * *

Bones charged down the beach towards the other dog, tail wagging from side to side as he ran. "Bones! Come!" Sam called after him uselessly. As usual, his dog ignored him.

Luckily, the other dog was friendly, and the two circled each other happily as Sam jogged to catch up. The other dog's owner was letting Bones smell his hands.

"Sorry," Sam called once in earshot. "He's friendly I swear—just selectively deaf, too."

The boy laughed and crouched to scratch Bones' ears. "Yeah, I could tell." He didn't look much older than Sam, maybe in his late teens, Sam figured as he came to a halt beside them. The boy glanced up and Sam was startled by the color of his eyes—almost gold in shade. "Your dog's nice, if very sandy," he added with a grin, showing Sam his now wet and sandy hands.

Sam winced. "Yeah, sorry about that."

"No problem," the boy said lightly. He wrestled a tennis ball out of his dog's mouth and threw it. Both dogs galloped after it. "Oops, guess I just stole your dog." He turned to Sam, still wearing a friendly smile. "I'm Gabriel. I'd shake your hand, but."

Sam laughed as Gabriel wiped dog hair off of his hands. "I'm Sam."

"Well, it's nice to meet you, Sam. This jerk here is Spot, because I was feeling unoriginal when I named him." Gabriel gestured towards his dog, who was now playing keep-away with the ball. "So, do you live here, or, if not, what brings you to this part of the beach?"

"No, I live here with my brother and my dad." Sam waved an arm up the beach, back the way he'd come. "We rent out half the house, so we see lots of new people."

"That's cool," Gabriel said. "I'm just passing through with Spot. We're staying, uh, on the other side of that rock thing." He pointed to the outcropping separating the beaches. They chatted for a little while longer while their dogs moved on to chasing seagulls. Sam learned that Gabriel had brothers, too, but was estranged from the family and hadn't seen them in a long time. He didn't ask why. Soon the sky began to darken and fog rolled in as the evening progressed, and Sam realized that they'd been talking for quite some time—much longer than he'd anticipated Bones' evening walk being. Gabriel had waded out into the water, waves soaking the hems of his cut-offs. He was trying to tug the tennis ball out of his dog's mouth with very little success. Bones returned and plopped down at Sam's feet, looking satisfied.

Finally Gabriel flung his hands up in the air and tromped back out of the water. "It's no use," he said dramatically. "Greedy dog won't give an inch."

Sam laughed as Gabriel unthinkingly ran a hand through his hair, getting it wet. "Hey, it was really nice meeting you, but my dad's probably wondering where the heck I ran off to, so…"

Gabriel waved an arm. "Yeah, sure, I know how it is. Nice talking to you, Sam."

"You, too!" Sam waved as Bones lurched to his feet and they began to return home. When he glanced back a minute later, Gabriel and Spot were gone.

A few days later, Sam found Gabriel again, this time down by the tide pools. Spot was napping next to a rock while Gabriel squatted and poked an anemone. "Hey!" he called. "Uh, Gabriel!"

Gabriel looked up. "Sam, hey! I'm looking for hermit crabs, have you seen any?"

Sam shook his head as he and Bones drew closer. "I just got here, so not yet."

"Cool, you can help me look." Gabriel hopped to his feet and prodded his dog with his bare toes. "Unless…" He hesitated, clearly leaving an opportunity for Sam to say he was busy.

"Sounds fun," Sam said, smile creeping onto his face.

They spent the next half an hour dicking around in the pools. There are sea stars everywhere, even just lying on the sand, unattached to any rocks. They poked a few more anemones and tried to tease a crab out of hiding at one point (to no avail) until Gabriel all but yelped with excitement and grabbed Sam's arm, pointing.

"Hermit crab?" Sam asked, squinting at the water.

"Two of them," Gabriel confirmed, kneeling in the wet sand. "I think they're chasing each other or something, look."

Sam spotted them after a second. He'd mistaken them for snails, but the legs under the shells betrayed the species.

"They're kind of creepy looking," he said after a second.

Gabriel put a hand to his chest in mock-offense. "Excuse you, they're perfectly lovely creatures of loveliness."

Sam laughed at his over-the-top-ness, which Gabriel quickly let fade in favor of an answering smile after a second. "I guess they do have weird legs," he conceded. "Hey, Sam."

"Yeah?" Sam asked.

"So I might've read you wrong, but…" Gabriel was looking at him kind of intently now, so Sam turned towards him and assumed a listening expression. Gabriel only hesitated for another second before leaning forward and kissing him carefully. Sam froze in surprise and Gabriel pulled back quickly. "Sorry."

"No, it's fine," Sam said, wanting to get rid of that closed-off look on Gabriel's usually expressive face. "I was just…surprised." He smiled tentatively at his friend, who slowly began to look delighted. Sam leaned forward to press an awkward kiss of his own on Gabriel's mouth before getting up and splashing out into the water. Gabriel followed him.

"God, how do you stand it?" Sam demanded. "The water's freezing!"

Gabriel laughed. "I don't really notice. You'll adjust."

"More like my legs will go numb and die and you'll have to take me to a hospital to get them amputated." Sam was only half-joking.

"Sam difference." Gabriel leaned closer. "Hey, come here, I have a secret to tell you." He cupped a hand to his mouth. Sam obligingly leaned down, as his recent growth spurt had left him towering over most people, including Gabriel, who was admittedly kind of short. Instead of saying anything, Gabriel caught his chin and kissed him again, a little warmer and sweeter. They kissed until a wave crashed over their knees, startling Sam back a step. Gabriel laughed as he hopped back, too. "I have to go."

"Oh," Sam said, feeling dazed. "See you tomorrow, maybe?"

"Definitely," Gabriel said, splashing out of the shallows and waving goodbye. Sam stood in the water and watched him go until Bones got bored of waiting around and came to nose Sam's legs impatiently. Sam got the picture and started to long walk back, not noticing the beach or the other people through his preoccupied thoughts of Gabriel's eyes when he laughed.

Sam spent the rest of the day floatingly happy, which attracted the snarky comments of his brother Dean. Not even Dean's ribbing could pierce his happy bubble, though, and he goes to bed with a stupid smile on his face.

The next day was when things go horribly wrong.

"We should go swimming," Gabriel suggested.

"You're nuts, the water's freezing," Sam protested.

Gabriel wiggled his eyebrows and offered to warm him up, which startled a laugh out of Sam.

"Okay, you win, I'll hop around and freeze," Sam offered as a compromise, which was how he ended up with his balls slowly turning into ice cubes while Gabriel made sea monster noises and disappeared beneath the water to grab Sam's ankle. Sam yelped and fell over, getting completely soaking. He emerged spluttering, and Gabriel kissed him again. The kiss tasted like cold salt water.

"Poor Sam," Gabriel said with an odd, edged smirk. "I made you get all cold. Come on." He pulled Sam back out into shallower water and didn't let go of his hand once they stood still again.

"So, do you want—" Gabriel began, but then the men who had been wandering nearby came stopped beside them.

"Hey, do you know how to get to the road from here?" one asked. While Sam opened his mouth to answer, the second man pulled out a gun.

"Silver bullet," the man said gloatingly as Sam froze in terror. "Works on werewolves and shifters and fish monsters, isn't that right?" Gabriel made a choked noise and his grip on Sam's hand was crushing.

"No, please," Gabriel said in a thin, shaking voice. "Please—"

"Let go of him," the man with the gun said. Gabriel flinched, and Sam sensed it through their joined hands. His bones creaked as Gabriel let go.

"Come on, kid," the first man said firmly. "Come away from him—your friend was trying to hurt you."

Sam thought wildly that these men must be homophobes or something. He wanted to grab Gabriel's hand again, to curl up in a ball and never move, to run, for these men to be far away from them.

"Your little boyfriend here was going to drown you," the armed man said. "Because that's what monsters do, isn't it?" The last bit was directed at Gabriel, who shut his eyes and stood shaking. Sam heard the sound of a barking dog, and barely had time to register it as Bones before the dog lunged at the first man, growling. The gunman looked over, and Gabriel leapt forward in a blur of motion, knocking the second man to the ground. An odd shriek echoed in Sam's ears as Gabriel turned and fled into the water. The man snatched up his gun again, cursing, and Sam moved unthinkingly, hitting the man's arm and making his shot go wide.

"Dammit," the man snarled, and flung Sam away as if he were much smaller than he was.

The first man groaned, backing away from Bones. "The creature'll be long gone now, doubt it'll come back."

"Fucking thing bit me." Blood dripped from the gunman's hand, and Sam had never been more afraid and confused in his life.

"Bones," he said, and barely recognized his voice. "Bones, leave it. Come." He knelt to pet his dog and hide his face from the strange men.

"Here" Someone dropped a blanket over his shoulders and the first man crouched beside him, eyeing Bones warily. "Your friend was a merman," he explained in a slow tone of voice. "If you know your Greek myths—Odysseus—"

"The sirens," Sam said automatically.

"Right." The man smiled politely at him. "Your friend was going to hurt you, kid. Badly."

"He would've gotten you into the water and then torn the flesh from your bones with his teeth while you fought to get air," the gunman snapped.

"We should go swimming." Gabriel's voice and strange expressions that day echoed in his head and Sam felt sick. "Fuck you," he said, suddenly furious. "Fuck you. I don't—" Bones began to growl again and he fell quiet.

"Sorry, kid, but it's true." The man clapped Sam's shoulder and stood. "If you run into any more trouble, we'll be around, alright? Can you get back home by yourself?"

"You're crazy. Leave me and my friends alone." Sam wrapped his arms around Bones and pretended his voice wasn't shaking. The sound of footsteps crunched away, only to be replaced with the sound of whimpering. Gabriel's dog Spot nosed at his arm sadly before turning and heading for the water.

"Spot—no, wait, stay—"

Spot ignored him and began to swim out. Sam watched as the dog's body lengthened and grew flippers. The seal dived into the water and vanished, just as Gabriel had done.

"Oh, god," Sam said, and stood on the beach clutching the blanket as he began to shiver for a good while longer.

Dean knew instantly that something was wrong when Sam got home, and he fluttered around badgering Sam all evening like a very large moth bouncing uselessly against a light bulb. Sam let Dean assume, eventually, that he'd been dumped by some girl, and spent a sleepless night looking up merpeople on the Internet.

He sat on the rocks next to the tide pools the next evening, watching the horizon while the waves crashed wildly against the cliff.

The sun was near setting when a voice spoke.

"Didn't expect to see you around here again, Sam."

Gabriel was sitting on the rocks below, watching him silently, not flinching as the waves crashed against him and his long fish tail. Sam's eyes registered fins and gills and webbed fingers while his brain went holy shit holy shit merman. He managed a shrug and countered with, "I wondered if you'd come back."

Gabriel's expression was neatly shut off. "What, you're not about to run screaming in the other direction because your summer fling has ear fins?" The ear fins wiggled demonstratively. Sam tried not to stare too obviously despite his fascination.

"Depends," he said at last. "Were you trying to lure me into the water so you could eat my still-beating heart?"

Gabriel's face was still impassive, but something flickers behind it. "Well, there were thoughts of eating, but I was really thinking about a different kind."

Once Sam recognized the dirty joke for what it was he choked on air and had to cough for an embarrassingly long amount of time before he could breathe normally. Gabriel was staring at the water, but Sam could tell he was biting down a smile.

"You're kind of a jerk," he said once his lungs were back under control, and then stood. Gabriel watched warily as he carefully crept down the rocks, hoping against hope that he wouldn't slip and plunge to his doom, before finally making his way to a spot nearer to Gabriel, where he sat silently to watch the sun go down.

Gabriel spoke again as the tiny sliver left of the sun slipped under the horizon. "I can't stay much longer. Those hunters—they'll probably scour the area for me, and I'd rather not be too close to an area where I was identified." His teeth were very sharp, Sam noticed as he spoke.

"So this is goodbye, then?" Sam felt a surprising stab of sorrow. They barely knew each other, had only spoken for a few days, but he knew he'd miss Gabriel once he was gone.

"Yes," Gabriel said. He turned to Sam then with a too bright to be genuine smile. "Kiss for luck?"

Sam barely hesitated before kissing him, careful fingers in Gabriel's hair and tasting salt and the chill of the ocean on Gabriel's pointed teeth. Gabriel kissed him back with something like regret on his lips and tongue. Sam drew back after a long moment, but stayed close. He was glad to still be able to see his friend very clearly despite his unfamiliar body. "I'll miss you," Sam said honestly. Sharp fissions of energy crackled up and down his fingers where they were tangled in Gabriel's wet hair. He wondered if that was a merman thing or a relationship thing.

"You don't know me at all," Gabriel pointed out. His eyes were searching.

"I wanted to," was all Sam could say. He drew back slowly, careful not to brush Gabriel's fins. "Say goodbye to Spot from me and Bones?"

Gabriel smiled faintly at that. "I will." He eased himself forward on the rock, ready to slip into the water. "Bye, Sam."

"Bye," Sam echoed, and Gabriel was gone.


End file.
